Aimée
by Saturn-Jupiter
Summary: A young girl's mind is trapped inside the body of a pokémon whilst her body lies in a coma elsewhere. Her loyal pokémon watch over her comatose body while her mind is threatened by a faction of dark type pokémon wishing to resurrect the legendary Darkrai.
1. Le Commencement

**Author's Note: ****Trying something new by putting these notes before the story. Could end up putting them at the end, I'll see how it goes.**

**Thanks to EmpoleonDream for the beta and to anyone reading this.**

Aimée

A story based on the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Series.

Prologue

Le commencement

The cave's crest hung heavy behind them, seeming to seal the entrance to the hidden dungeon-like abode they had discovered. Within the cave, where the light could not softly bless the ground, it was cold. There was no light, save for that which was trapped outside, unable to provide its healing warmth, and that of the harsh, mechanical torch whose brightness flickered changeably from one state to the next. With no light and no warmth, the cave began to resemble, more and more, the mouth of a monster.

Droplets of water dripped delicately from the ceiling, disturbed by the many chattering creatures that hung from it. The rocks around the cave were perfectly smooth and rounded, so much so that it seemed to be an unnatural phenomenon. The further they moved into the cave, the further they were plunged into darkness, with the dank floor posing an increased danger to their safety. The path they followed became steeper and steeper as they descended into some sort of pit, a pit in which the torch's light was dwarfed.

"I don't like this."

Sharply, the human turned around with a distinctively unique expression on its face. Mouth curved slightly into a subtly smug smile, one eyebrow was raised as though questioning something and the other sunk, as though upset by something. Their eyes glistened with a playful, adventurous nature and their entire body burned with youthful energy. It was noticeably the sort of person that sought out mysteries, sought out danger and always came out the better for it. Though, this time, the winds of fate were blowing against them.

"Oh, come on," she snapped, her voice echoing around the cave powerfully, "You _never _like wandering around dank, dark, smelly caves."

The human turned back around to focus on where they were walking and what, if any, threat lay before them. A shoulder length mop of brown hair was tied neatly into a ponytail which flopped from side to side as she moved forwards. Upon her back was a rucksack of offensive and geometric proportions which contained within every supply that could ever be needed for wandering and ambling through caves in which, very probably, horrible things lived. As such, the rucksack had very little in the way of character besides its battered brown leather skin.

"Well if you stopped _taking _us to dank, dark, smelly caves and getting us into trouble," came the response, "Perhaps I wouldn't hate them so much."

Pausing, the human turned around again and approached her partner. Her battered, barely blue jeans, which had begun to turn a mistreated colour of grey, had so many pockets that a pickpocket would carry the expression of a child in a sweet store upon seeing her. Her belt, obscured by an oversized charcoal hoody, carried a three, virtually unnoticeable, balls of red and white. Her charcoal hoody had been several sizes too big for several years, but the girl had grown quite attached to it and so ended up having to safety-pin the sleeves up to elbow height just so she could move her arms in what would be regarded as a normal way. Despite always wearing the jacket, beneath it, a white t-shirt could be seen in all of its clean glory.

"You need to clean those jeans at some point." observed her partner.

"I know," she replied, "Look, this cave is said to have a legendary pokémon inside. Aside from that, it's a convenient shortcut to get to the dock on the other side of the island."

"Which is?"

"I don't know, I haven't actually checked."

"So how do you know we're even going the right way!?!" exclaimed the partner, "Why would they have two docks on this god-forsaken island anyway? It took you a full two hours as it was to convince that sailor to give us a lift over here."

"Just, trust me," she requested, her sky-blue eyes glistening with an honesty that was impossible to refuse, "Okay?"

Grumbling, her partner nodded its head. Smiling, her human friend turned forward once more and began to trek through the darkness of the cave. A sudden, freezing wind shot through the cave, whistling and whispering, whispering and whistling. Shivers engulfed the pair of trepid explorers and they stopped walking, taking the time to observe the suddenly foreboding area. Closing the gap between them, they huddled closer to each other for warmth and protection.

"I don't suppose that could _just _be the wind?" asked the partner.

"I don't think we should stop moving," advised the young girl, who, by her youthful, not-yet-grown-into face, was little over seventeen years old, "We should carry on. How do you feel about a little bit of jogging?"

The two began to jog along the cave, only to find that, rather than running towards an exit engulfed in light, they simply progressed deeper into darkness, the torch rapidly finding itself useless against the blackness. The pounds of their feet against the damp cave floor echoed around the full length of the never-ending tunnel. Droplets of water continued to fall, seeming to do so with greater urgency as the two victims hastened towards the obscured ending.

Suddenly, the torch flickered out and died. The battery had failed on them and they were now running blind towards an exit they weren't even sure existed. They weren't even sure what great terrifying thing they were running away from but, to them, it was of little consequence. The wind died down, ceasing to even whistle once, and they came to a slow stop, breathing heavily and loudly: panting and gulping down the air as though it were the most sacred, valuable life source on the planet.

Hands on knees, the human straightened herself and tried to peer into the darkness. She cursed her vision, which, for all the ability of her optician, just wouldn't see beyond the edge of her glasses. She even tried taking her glasses off, but then found herself plunged into a blurry blackness even more unbearable than the one before. Placing her glasses back on her face she turned to face her partner, whose location she could identify by the panting to her right.

"Can you see anything?" she asked.

"Nothing," came the reply, "You?"

"The glasses aren't helping at all," she replied, "Can't see anything past my nose."

"I'll see if I can…" though being unable to see her partner, the human was convinced that their eyes were closed and that they were opening their senses to the cave to see if there were any threats. A sudden, sharp, invisible movement caused concern within the human who took a step forward and placed a hand on the soft, moist skin of herr partner.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Sssh!" snapped the partner suddenly. Both of their muscles were tense and from them, a feeling of apprehension and fear flooded. Their skin had turned cold and the wind returned with vengeance as it cascaded through the cave with the strength of a tank. The duo planted their legs deep into the soggy earth below, fighting to stay together despite the wind's suddenly awesome power. The wind, for all of its strength, quickly died down.

"What was that?" queried the human.

"Wind, duh."

"I know that," retorted the girl, offended, "What I meant was, 'what was with you'? You're all tensed up. Is there something nearby?"

"I thought so, but the only other life forms I can detect are the zubats and golbats."

"No gligars?" she questioned, "Odd."

"How so?"

"I got reports saying this cave was inhabited mostly by gangs of gligars," she explained, "I guess my sources got it wrong. Shall we get moving again? I'm not sure how long we've been in here and it could be dark outside."

"Sure," replied the partner, taking a step forwards before stopping suddenly after an acute, whirring sound penetrated their ears, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

_Whirr…_

"That!" exclaimed her partner, "That just then, that whirring sound!"

"Yeah, that's odd," she stated, "I wonder what it could –"

Suddenly, the ground below them disappeared and they were plunged into a pit. Above them, their entrance sealed up. The walls were slippery and coated with a thick, damp liquid that prevented them gaining any grip with which to escape. Fearing of a pit of spikes, poison or ravenous pokémon of some kind, they cried out, yelling throughout their fall. Eventually, they landed into a body of water with a thick plopping sound and swam to the surface for the air they had used up crying out for help.

"Aimee?" asked the partner, looking around the basin of water frantically, "Aimee!?! Aimee, are you okay?"

A figure broke the surface of the water suddenly, spluttering and coughing, gasping for air. It swam over and held onto the more capable swimmer for comfort against the freezing, unfriendly liquid into which it had fallen. Smiling, the girl's partner nodded, reassured that her friend was as safe as could be despite the ordeal they had faced so far.

"I'm fine, you?" asked the young girl, whose name had been identified as Aimee.

"Alive."

"Oh good." exhaled Aimee, relieved.

Closing her eyes, and feeling comforted by Aimee's grip around her neck, she opened up her senses. It took little over five seconds for her to identify a hole in the bottom of the basin. Informing her human friend of this hole, she recieved her consent for the pair to dive into it and follow it wheresoever it happened to end up. This turned out to be a poorly judged and bad decision.

They were quickly caught up in the vortex. Their downwards swimming was violently twisted into them being dragged. Aimee's air was rapidly depleting and her body began to panic, frantically punching at the water as though it would make a difference. Deeply concerned for her friend, Aimee's partner unleashed a sudden burst of energy that allowed them to emerge from the water tunnel before the vortex completely destroyed Aimee's ability to keep her mouth from breathing in water.

Emerging from the end of the tunnel, they flew downwards about five metres before colliding with a shallow lake of water. Whilst her partner had landed safely and survived the fall very well, Aimee had hit the ground with her entire body and the bones screamed out in disagreement. Though grateful for air, five fractured ribs leant her only a burning sensation when she inhaled the reviving element. Helped to her feet by her partner, the two walked onto the hill that banked the shallow puddle.

Sitting up, and holding her sides, Aimee examined the room. It was double the size of a football pitch and the roof was far higher further up the bank than where they had fallen from. There was also, strangely, light. Iridescent, peaceful green light danced as fire atop torches fastened to the wall by ancient screws. The flames flickered delicately, lighting the midnight blue water with a turquoise tinge that took away the apprehensive mysteriousness of it.

The ground upon which they sat was dry and sandy, yet cobbled as though it had been touched and created by the hands of humans many eons ago. The walls, inevitably, were black as night as they dripped with the water from above. Deciding to climb the sandy bank, the pair hoisted themselves upwards, Aimee cried out as she did so, concerned that her ribs could be hiding a far more dangerous injury. The steep sandy bank of the hidden room became a plateau at the top, revealing an altar.

Torches sat fastened to every side of the walls at a precise height with exactly a metre between them. Yet two spears, which, strangely, carried green flames as spikes at the end, hugged the altar. The altar itself was a knee height table upon which only a green crystal sat. Nearing it, Aimee felt a sudden fear engulf her heart and she backed away. Her partner, equally as wary, refused to progress further for fear of angering the unseen force that the pair could both sense.

"Aimee?" asked the Pokémon partner quietly, "What do you think it is?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, "But it doesn't seem too friendly."

"We should leave."

"I totally agree," nodded Aimee before gesturing to the room, "But how the hell do we get out of here?"

_You don't._

Frozen in place, the two friends turned to face one another. Fear and deeply seated concern for one another was as clear as a Summer's day upon their faces. Aimee smiled, faking confidence, and placed a warm but shivering hand on the shoulder of her closest friend. Although taking the reassurance, the Pokémon realised, with a disheartening sadness, that this was a situation they might not get out of alive.

"You heard it too then?" asked Aimee, seeking the answer she already knew.

"Yup," replied her friend, "Can't say I wanted to though."

_You are two of many to trespass upon this cave system._

"Then I'm sure you won't mind if we just leave, right?"

_Silence, human! _spat the voice venomously, _You are the first to have uncovered my secret abode. You have trespassed where humans are forbidden. This cannot go unpunished. You and your partner shall die together._

"Wait!" begged Aimee, leaping to her feet with careless vigour and disregard the injuries to her ribcage, "Please, just wait, hear us out! We didn't mean to come here!"

_I heard you when you entered, heard what you were planning. It was your wish to see me. I shall grant that wish, though it shall be your last, _retorted the voice, _You shall suffer together._

"Run, Aimee!" screamed the pokémon as the terrific monster appeared from the shadows, "I'll hold it off!"

"There's nowhere to run to!" roared the reply, "Besides, I am _never _going to leave you!"

_Enough of this! I have no interest in your petty ideals. You have disturbed me, threatened the safety of my abode and therefore you must die. This is the Law of the Land, _hissed the voice, _Do not try to avoid the inevitable. It will only prolong your suffering._

"RUN, AIMEE!" roared the pokémon, "It's charging an attack! RUN!"

"I've already told you!" screamed Aimee, "I am NEVER going to leave you!"

_Fighting will only make the end more painful. Please, do not resist._

"WATER, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" yelled Aimee, leaping despite her injuries into the firing line.

"NO! AIMEE!"

Darkness engulfed the room.


	2. Le Réveil

A/N: Sorry for the late update, this chapter has not been beta-ed but I'll upload the beta-ed version when it's been done. Enjoy:

Aimée

Chapter One

Le réveil

Whispers, wistful and whistling, wisped silently about her head. Sounds waded wantonly through her mind. Her ears fluttered, twitched and recoiled at the onslaught of sound that invaded the space between them. They made no sense, the words, despite them being of a language she understood wholeheartedly. Nothing made sense as her brain sought to wake her from the sleeping depths of unconsciousness, away from the state of fear she had all too soon forgotten.

"Are you okay?"

There was a taste in her mouth of something distant and forgotten. It tasted of metal and the heavy pang of it sat uncomfortably on her tongue, which, for its ignorance, tried to rid itself of the pungent horror. Her eyes dared to open but were stuck shut by something she couldn't identify. Raising her limbs, she rubbed at them and eventually opened them to a bright, blurry environment she couldn't understand. Her eyes slam shut in their confusion and began to unleash salty droplets on her face.

"Oh no, don't cry, child! It's okay, you're in safe hands."

Rolling over slightly and craning her neck, she forced herself to a sitting position, though she found herself unable to maintain the position unless her arms were out to balance her. Her head lolled from side to side as she was unable to maintain the weight of it and so her eyes remained shut, so as to not confuse her even more. Her ability to smell had returned and the unforgettable scent of clinical cleanliness entered her nose, forcing a sneeze. Somehow, the scent seemed more acute than it ever had before.

"That's better, now, come on, get those little eyes open!"

The words were beginning to make sense now, they were becoming clear and were understood. Though, she immediately noticed how patronising she was finding the experience and this angered her slightly. She opened her eyes and squinted, surprised by an unusual vibrancy of colour and perfection of vision that she had never been able to see before. A feeling of surprise and pure happiness dawned on her as it finally clicked in her brain that she could see. She could see, without the glasses, without contact lenses. It was beautiful.

"Well, you certainly look happier!"

Frowning slightly, she turned to face the source of the voice and nearly leapt out of the bed. It was a chansey. Fair enough, they weren't exactly common pokémon, but that wasn't what surprised her. It was the size of the thing that made her, for want of the world, jump out of her skin. It was, as her mind accurately described, _friggin' huge!_ The circular pink shape almost engulfed her field of vision as she turned to face it and there were several odd things about it, other than its enormous size and the fact that it was talking to her so informally; it wasn't a chansey she knew well enough to call her 'little'.

It looked, for the most part, as one might expect a chansey to look. It was a perfectly ovular shape with two little, for lack of a better word, flaps acting as arms. Upon either side of its head were three small pink strands that stuck out as though imitating hair. Its mouth was small and sat directly beneath, in a genuine smile, two brightly glistening blue eyes that practically bled compassion. However, within the small pouch in which an egg should have sat, a small black crystal, that glistened darkly, was seated.

"I'll be back in a moment, please excuse me."

With that, the abnormally large chansey left the room. Frowning slightly, and with a finally clear head, she decided to get out of the bed and explore. She was surprised, firstly to find that the bed was not in fact a bed. It was an oddly comfy collaboration of straw and moss, coated by a single white sheet. This bed sat upon a wooden floor whose formation was mirrored by the ceiling above and by the walls that had been painted over with a thin layer of white paint that had begun to flake off in several places.

Directly opposite the bed was a large empty space that led gave a great spanning view of the surrounding area. From it crisp, fresh air entered the room with energy so vibrant that it made her want to hop, skip and jump around the place. The room was little bigger than the average ten feet by seven feet by ten feet. Directly left of the bed was a blanket upon which many surgical instruments and berries sat. Most of them, she was unable to identify. Whilst the room was oddly natural, it somehow retained a sharply sickening clinical scent that persistently invaded her nose.

To the far right hand corner of the room sat a mirror. It was this very object that had attracted her attention. Warily, as though sensing it would give an unfamiliar image, she approached the mirror as, from the angle she sat, she was unable to see her reflection. It was as she moved towards it that her fear sharpened: for some reason she couldn't understand, she had to crawl as her legs simply couldn't support her body. That and, the ground felt strange under her hands.

_Oh…_ she observed as she stared at her reflection, _… Bugger._

Staring right back at her was an eevee. An eevee that was as strange as the chansey in its own right. Upon its… her head was an uncharacteristically large tuft of fluffy brown fur that fell over the majority of her forehead, as though attempting to imitate the fringe she knew should have been sitting over a human face. Similarly, the fur white mane that sat around her neck was far fluffier than could normally be expected. The shade of brown that made up her fur was, oddly, several shades darker and, in fact, resembled her natural _human _hair colour. Her eyes though had retained their glistening sky-blue beauty.

_Okay, _she told herself, _So… I'm an eevee. Well, that's certainly not something that happens every day. In fact… what happened? I can't remember… Oh my God! I have a tail! EPIC!_

As though captivated by this sudden revelation, she started wagging her tail from side to side as fast and frantically as she could, following its movements with her newly obtained twenty/twenty vision. Though, as she it began to dawn on her what she had become, a feeling of emptiness filled her heart. Something was missing and she couldn't comprehend, remember or understand what it could be. Something was irrevocably gone and it hurt her to think about it.

_I had… I had… a… I had a bag! _she exclaimed, _A rucksack. So… I must have been doing something, going somewhere. It was definitely a heavy bag. But where was I? Was I with someone? Who… who was I? Damn, I can't even remember my own name!_

Sulking, the tiny little eevee returned to her bed and curled up instinctively in a ball. Amused, the little creature observed to itself that being a typical Gemini had its distinct advantages when it came to adaptability and getting used to things. She placed her head on her han… paws and sighed. She had so many questions and no answers, no way of getting answers. Frowning with a noticeably frustrated expression, she unconsciously started twitching her tail, signifying her further her anger in the face of the unknown.

"She's okay?" cried an already annoying voice loudly, "Thank Arceus for that!"

_Arceus?_ The name was familiar to her. As though she'd heard it before, read it before. Something in her mind was trying to tell her something about that word, it was important, relevant but it faded as soon as it appeared. Her main concern was the situation she was in. She could work out the details later on when she had at least some grasp on the situation.

The tiny entrant to the room was in fact a piplup. A small blue ball who was barely four inches taller than herself. It carried a necklace from which a familiar black obsidian hung. The piplup had bright green eyes that sparkled excitedly and contained within an egotistical and self-righteous sense of over-confidence. The piplup waddled over with a movement that almost resembled skipping. It seemed curious, far more curious than the eevee could ever have wanted it to be.

"Hello!" shouted the tiny piplup, whose voice, despite its tiny size, rivalled that of the largest pokémon, "I saved you! How are you? What's your name? Nurse Chance tells me you've been out of it for quite a while. You feelin' okay? My name's Ice."

Ice, the tiny male piplup, was about to continue his lecture but a hand on his shoulder stopped him as his mouth began to open once more. Nurse Chance had a slightly annoyed expression on her face. She seemed to find his lightning-speed sentences annoying and she certainly carried the face of a nurse frustrated with her patient's treatment being interrupted. The eevee smiled, contented that, at least for a while the words had been silenced.

"Let her speak, Ice," commanded Nurse Chance assertively, "How are you feeling, child?"

Sitting up, the eevee placed a paw on its head and rubbed its unnatural fringe vigorously. Frowning, it sighed loudly before looking back up and meeting the eyes of her two new companions. She knew she had been a human, that she was a human, but, perhaps, that information was better kept to herself. At least until she knew what was going on. Assertively deciding to keep her true identity a secret, she formulated a thick web of lies in her mind. At the centre of which, her real name hid behind a thick veil of darkness.

"Okay," she began, "I suppose."

"Have you got any pain anywhere?" asked Nurse Chance, "Any discomfort?"

"I'm a bit sore," she explained, mentally acknowledging that it was a mental lie for her trying to get used to her new and unfamiliar body, "But otherwise, no. A slight headache but nothing serious."

"That's good news!" exclaimed Nurse Chance with a deep sigh or relief, "I'll be back in a minute, I'm going to fetch the Doctor."

Nurse Chance walked out of the room awkwardly, and her movement resembled that of waddling more than walking. Her exit left the eevee alone in the room with the piplup named Ice who had already demonstrated an extraordinary ability to annoy and frustrate everyone he met. The eevee sighed and walked over to look at herself in the mirror. The sadness in her eyes was as clear as day when looking at her reflection. Something was missing. She knew it.

"What'cha doin'?" asked Ice who had waddled over to her side, beaming with a curiousness and nosiness that made her feel extremely awkward and, to an extent, exposed, "Bit vain isn't it? Looking at yourself in the mirror?"

"Look," she snapped irritably, "I'm not in the mood."

"Jeez," retorted Ice, clearly annoyed at her reaction, "What's your name anyway?"

The eevee frowned. It was well and truly obscured by the thick veil of darkness that blotted out every tiny piece of information she knew she needed. Her name was hidden from her. With it, whatever she was missing also hid. Frustration tore at her heart with ferocious force. Why couldn't she remember? She knew she was a human but everything else was a mystery, and all of the clues were being kept away from her grasp. Sighing, she made up a name.

"Just call me Tid," she stated, "It's my nickname."

She turned away from the mirror. Her lonesome blue eyes stared into the wandering green eyes of Ice, who seemed to be reading the floor as though it contained hidden mysteries only he could understand. He looked up suddenly, oblivious to the pain in her eyes, his emerald orbs alight with wonderful and sparkling things. An evident smile decorated his yellow beak as he opened it to unleash his all-knowing and incredible ideas.

"Tiddles sounds better," declared Ice, "I'll call you Tiddles!"

"No, that's just patronising," snapped Tid, rapidly losing patience, "Call me Tid, like I asked you to."

"Nah," said Ice, waving the notion away with his wing, "Tiddles sounds better."

Ice, who had waddled two metres away, had begun to lecture Tid on the pleasing aesthetic sound of Tiddles over her own, chosen name. She found it to be an impressive display of egocentricity that was almost sickening. Though, she noticed with a sense of satisfaction, when he was delivering these stunning speeches of world-importance, he had his back turned to her. This gave her the perfect opportunity to vocally bitch about him without him realising.

"You sicken me," Tid stated as cheerfully as she could manage, "So much so that I actually feel nauseous."

To her surprise, the piplup turned around with a curious frown staining his forehead. He paused mid-rant to asked her what it was she had said. Thankfully, Nurse Chance chose to re-enter the room at that point with a slowbro accompanying her. He also wore around his neck the same crystal that Ice and Nurse Chance wore. Around his neck was a stethoscope, though she found this strange, she was able to shrug it off as her mind immediately distracter her with his height.

Compared to her, he was huge. He was at least four feet taller than herself and he seemed to loom over her like a vast and terrible tyrant. She felt small and weak in his presence. She wanted to curl up into a ball or run away, anything to avoid seeing him. To her surprise, he seemed to notice the fear that diseased her sea blue eyes and he knelt down. With this movement, his height was slice in half and he suddenly seemed a lot less threatening.

There was a genuine, heartfelt kindness in his eyes that she had seen before. She couldn't remember where from or to whom those eyes had belonged, but she remembered the same brown orbs sparkling back at her. He reached out a hand, or paw, and placed it on her head. Which, although seemed patronising, was actually surprisingly reassuring for Tid. She found herself relaxing and she found the slowbro's presence many times less scary than before.

"My name is Doctor Slomo," he began, his voice droned but was sufficiently high-pitched so as to not be boring enough to plunge listeners into sleep, "But everyone calls me 'Doc' or just, 'the Doctor'. May I ask what your name is?"

"Tid."

"Do you remember what you were doing?" asked Doc, "What happened before you passed out?"

"I was looking for something I'd lost," she replied, "And I didn't pass out. I was knocked out."

"Aimee? Aimee?" called Water loudly, "Shit. This isn't good."

Aimee's companion, a terrifically intelligent swampert, had gradually awoken from unconsciousness and had seen her trainer lying beside her. Leaning over her trainer's seemingly lifeless body, she listened carefully for breathing. When the blessed breaths echoed soundly within her ears, the swampert sighed with relief so intense that pokémon in the immediate area actually shuddered.

"Aimee?" she asked, when no response came, she began to talk to herself, "Okay. The sun can't have set too long ago, so the sailor will still be there. He promised to wait for us. I hope he's as good at keeping promises as you are."

The swampert looked back at her comatose companion. Her face seemed so innocent and peaceful despite the physical decimation her body had received. It made her cringe, the injuries. They were horrific and totally unjustifiable. The rib injuries alone were enough to cause concern but Aimee had taken a direct attack from a legendary. It was a miracle that she was still breathing.

Aimee's breathing was laboured and Water could sense that one of the ribs had punctured her left lung. That particular lung was a bloody, collapsed mess. Had the human been conscious, she would have been in terrible pain. For that, Water was thankful. A salty tear fell from Water's eyes as they examined the destruction the attack had caused.

In the centre of her chest, the black hoody and white t-shirt had been torn apart and the edges of the material still smouldered from the residual heat of the wound. A massive open, shallow wound sat in the direct centre of her chest. It was soaked in new blood that began to seep through and form on top of the stick red mess that had already coagulated on the injury. Aggravated red rashes of burning flesh sat around the wound, giving off the very heat that continued to damage the clothing surrounding the site.

Her face was coated with the thick black paint of soot, as were any exposed bits of previously vibrant pink skin. Around her mouth, frothy, bright blood sat, dribbling out from the side and forming a small pool that was soaked up by her discoloured hedge hair. Tiny cuts and grazes sat alongside the enormous injury but they had been there long before and were a result of the girl's own clumsiness and inability to keep her glasses on.

"Okay," asserted Water, realising that Aimee's survival relied entirely on her speed, "I'm going to carry you to the dock, Aimee. Then we're going to get back to mainland. Then I'm going to get you to a hospital. They'll fix you up and we'll be back to normal in no time at all. You'll see. There won't even be a scar!"

Despite the apparent cheerfulness and optimism in Water's voice, tears had begun to pour profusely down her face as she picked up the weightless body of her trainer. Placing all of the strength she could muster into her legs, Water hiked with difficulty up the side of the grass-coated mountain which stood between her and the dock. Carrying Aimee used up large amounts of energy and effort as her entire focus was placed on making sure that Aimee's dangling arms did not hit any stray rocks.

Eyes blurred by salty tears, Water strove forwards.


	3. L'Ombre

**A/N: I'm going to start a regular updating thing. I will try, to the best of my ability, to update every Sunday. At the latest, every Sunday fortnightly.**

**Again, an unbeta-ed chapter.**

Aimée

Chapter Two

L'ombre

"Knocked out?" asked Ice, "By who?"

"I didn't get a good look at them," lied Tid who knew that it was in fact her obscured memory that was the reason as to why she was unable to identify her attacker. Frowning, she continued, explaining her predicament, "I've lost a lot of my memory but other than that, I'm okay."

"I'll be the judge of that," reproached Doc, insulted that his medical knowledge was being underestimated and disregarded at such speeds, "Let me take a look at you."

Tid, for all of her memory loss, retained her personality in its entirety. As such, she could recall a distinctly tangible hatred of all things clinical. Her dislike of hospitals and doctors seemed to physically bleed from her as Doc checked her pulse and breathing rate among other things. She also knew that she had terrible vision but that seemed to have been disproved by her suddenly perfect vision. Furthermore, she knew she was meant to be a human, or at least that she hadn't always been an eevee.

From the distinctly bright light that flooded the room, she was able to estimate that it was mid-afternoon and presumably, summer. She allowed herself to be examined and queried as to her medical predicament, but found that some answers were obscured by the thick darkness that blocked her access. Eventually, although begrudgingly, Doc gave the all clear. Ice, unfortunately, saw this as an opportunity to give her a tour.

They left the room and walked down the wooden corridor. Their steps pounded the floor below, making them sound heavy as it echoed dumbly around the narrow pathway. Rooms with open doorways split off from the corridor, turning the compound into a complicated maze of clinical cells. After becoming lost twice, due to Ice's surprisingly poor sense of direction, the paper-door exit of the hospital fell into their field of vision. Ice allowed himself the honour of opening it, pushing the door towards its hinge.

Light, brighter than the sun itself, poured into the entrance. It cascaded into the lobby with a vigour one would expect of a starved animal seeking food. Blinding her delicate eyes, Tid was forced to slam her eyelids shut and turn away from the colourful waterfall that had invaded her vision. Quickly though, a shadow, barely an inch taller than herself, fell upon her. Blocking the light, she was able to open her eyes and stare into the confused blue orbs of Ice whose beak was closed for all of two seconds before unleashing an onslaught of sound that she barely paid attention to.

"What'cha doing?" asked Ice, voice laced with a curiosity that would have been quite capable of killing a meowth, "You're actin' like you've never seen the sun before."

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Tid, whose patience was dramatically shortened when the tiny piplup was hanging in the immediate vicinity, "Look, why are you still here?"

"You've lost your memory," stated Ice, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Perhaps a tour of the town will help. 'Sides, Ombre asked me to pick up a couple of things."

"Ombre?" asked Tid, the word being oddly familiar despite the efforts of the thick black shadow hovering in the back of her mind, "Is that a name?"

"You don't get around much do ya?" asked Ice, who had turned away from her to begin walking out of the doorway into the blinding sunlight.

Tid frowned and followed. They walked through the light and emerged the other side, to her surprise, unscathed. She had, naturally, assumed that Ice's poor sense of direction would have taken them to an entrance that, when exited, would send them shooting down the side of a mountain. Therefore, surprise was visibly active on her face as her pawed feet came into contact with luscious, thick, and bouncy green hills of grass.

A single path of relatively tame and shortened grass had been forged through the forest of green, mossy mess. This path led to a gap between thick hedges that surrounded the building, which, when Tid turned around briefly to inspect it, was a large wooden-brown building of extensively huge proportions that carried a large green cross over its entrance. Hearing Ice moving further away, she returned her attention to following the tiny, annoying blue creature, praying that its incessant talking wouldn't deafen her.

"Ombre is the leader of the Town Defence League," explained Ice, whose voice sounded significantly more intelligent without its distinctive colloquial speech, "It's sort of like a Rescue Team but better."

"What's a rescue team?" asked Tid, who, even with the black mass hiding away her memories, could not recall ever hearing such a title without the word 'search' being featured somewhere along the lines, "You sure you don't mean 'Search and Rescue Team'?"

"Nope, Rescue Team," continued Ice, "They help pokémon who're in trouble. The Defence League looks after the town and its citizens. It helps out local Rescue Teams if they need more pokémon to help."

"Hmm," stated Tid, "Sounds like a good idea."

"That's because it is," declared Ice proudly, "Tiddles."

Tid glared at Ice's back as they progressed and followed a path that forked to the right, heading towards a series of wooden buildings. The left path, she observed as they walked past it, headed off in the direction of a black forest whose trees were decrepit, grey and burnt despite it being summer. Frowning, she ignored it and followed her tour guide, who walked at an annoyingly speedy pace given its tiny legs.

The buildings of the town were constructed from wood and flimsy paper that seemed to whistle as brief and weak gusts of wind ploughed through the town. There were shops which functioned in a way that seemed odd to her as you did not go inside them, pick what you wanted and pay for them. Instead, you requested what you wanted and the items were handed over the counter. There were unmarked buildings, which she presumed to be houses and they were the only buildings that did not have iron locks covering the wooden doors.

A path of uncomfortable grit, pebbles and dirt had been paved through the miniscule city. The grass that banked the path and its many offshoots, was tamed and short; significantly different when compared to its unruly mossy counterpart closer to the hospital. Flowers sat in perfectly parallel rows, shimmering the colours of the rainbows as the orange sun began to fall slowly behind the distant, tree-ridden horizon. Ice, explaining the function of each shop, then proceeded to introduce her to the town's citizens.

The pokémon of the town, much to her discomfort, smiled and greeted and stared at her as she was introduced to them. She could say very little except a simple 'hello' before she was dragged off to meet the next pokémon. They were of varying types and species but generally speaking, the town had a majority population of normal types. Despite her failing memory, it was somehow instinct that assured her of these facts. Her own species, a normal type, allowed her to feel slightly more comfortable and relaxed around the town, more so than she would have normally felt.

They stopped for much longer at a shop that was owned by two kecelons, of which one was an unusual shade. Her mind, not her memory, informed her that the second one, the one who stood to her right, was dubbed as being 'shiny' and that it was an extremely rare, natural occurrence among pokémon. Her memory briefly flashed up but its bright cry was quickly silenced by the shifting black shadow. They were brothers, twins apparently, and they ran a shop that provided essential items.

"So Ice, who's the pretty lady?" asked the shiny kecelon, who had yet to be named by Tid's tour guide. There was a slur to the kecelon's voice that indicated that he was being humorous and friendly, a trait that many of the town's pokémon seemed to carry in abundance.

"And why," continued the shiny's sibling, "Haven't you introduced us yet?"

Tid, standing to Ice's left, noticed a quick, almost invisible roll of the eye out of her peripheral vision. A slight smile lifted her face as Ice let out a speedy sigh before returning to his outwardly usual self. He introduced Tid as Tiddles, for the umpteenth time that evening, and introduced the shiny kecelon as Glitter and his sibling as Gold. A grin covered Tid's face with a speed that made it impossible for anyone to miss and she was questioned as to why.

"What's with the smile, Tiddles?" queried Ice, seemingly amazed that his companion was capable of expressing any outward emotion resembling happiness.

"Their names remind me of a phrase I know," she explained, unaware that the phrase had slipped through the black mass, "All that glitters is gold."

The two kecelons seemed to reflect on the phrase for a long time, whereas Ice seemed to dismiss the information as being immediately irrelevant. The two turned around and examined the sign for their shop, which hung slightly precariously, over their heads. It read 'Essentials' and was written crudely. They frowned, as though somehow discontented with their sign before their attention was returned to Ice, whom had loudly shouted in order to gain their attention.

"Why are you still here?" began Gold.

"Buying something for the lovely lady?" questioned Glitter, smiling slightly.

"No, gettin' supplies for Ombre." stated Ice, spitting the name Ombre as though it were a swear word and that at some point in the near future, his mouth would require washing with soap.

"Again?" asked Gold.

"You guys must be burning through your cash." stated Glitter.

"Well, Moon doesn't particularly like it."

"Can't imagine he would."

"Anyway, how can we help you?" asked Gold.

It was at this point that Tid turned around and sat on a patch of grass. There was very little point in overhearing the rest of that conversation, so she decided to take in the scenery. It was pretty, and as civilised as some of the cities that lay hidden beneath the all-consuming black mass. She sighed slightly and rested her head on her paws. Sniffing in distinct, flowery freshness, she looked directly in front of her. A black wisp caught her eyes as it darted behind a tree.

Frowning, and assuring herself of Ice's continued distraction, she walked towards the small forested area. It lay behind a shop selling beauty items that was co-owned by a milotic and a roselia. They watched and greeted her as she walked by. She nodded them in acknowledgement but was more intrigued by the strange black shadow she had seen. The trees were covered in bright green leaves but the dappled sunlight was fading as night claimed victory over day. It was difficult to see, even with her new found vision, so she left and headed back towards Ice.

"Where'd you wander off to?" questioned Ice, who had just finished and was carrying a small brown bag full of items that Tid was vaguely able to recognise, "Nothing interesting over there."

"I thought I saw something," explained Tid, "Didn't find anything though."

"Okay, anyway, Ombre'll set you up until you get your memory back," continued Ice, "So, we better go to HQ. You can meet the guys and stuff. Who knows, someone might recognise ya."

Too distracted to reply, Tid nodded and followed Ice as he waddled off towards a large wooden building that lay a little while up ahead. Tid paused and looked to the side as the black wisp shot from tree to tree, as though trying to hide from her. She quickly assumed it was her imagination and let it be. Whatever it was, it would reveal itself to her at some point, be that a good thing or a bad thing.

"Hang in there, Aimee," requested Water, "Almost there."

It had been difficult, carrying Aimee up to the top of the hill, but once on the hill's crest, the gravelled path led her directly to the Docks. A slight hill obscured the tiny port until Water had pulled herself over it. Her vision scanned the area but darkness obscured everything, contorting the sky above as thick rain clouds began to swarm overhead. She relied on her sensitive ability of airwaves to see and was immediately down heartened. The boat had left.

"That bastard!" snapped Water aggressively, "Jerk said he'd wait."

It was downhill from then on, and it took profuse effort to prevent her legs sliding underneath her. Aimee was in a devastated condition; any further damage could worsen her chances of survival, which were rapidly declining as it was anyway. A plan formed in Water's mind. When they got to the docks, she'd release the other pokémon, they could help. It could just end up saving Aimee's life. Frowning, she forged onwards down the path.

Eventually, she reached the port whose wooden platforms were coated with salty water from increasingly vicious tides. The clouds above growled angrily, shaking the platform and the bones of the creatures who sat upon it. Water laid Aimee on the wet planks, aware that her trainer could start suffering from hypothermia if she wasn't already. Water's massive fingers fumbled around her trainer's waist until the three round balls rolled off the belt.

A smile on her face, Water pressed the buttons on the balls and sharp shards of light leapt from the balls with vigour. Once the light had faded, revealing Water's fellow companions, the balls slammed shut. Water placed them on her trainer's belt and was pleased by the ease with which the movement happened. She then stood up from her kneeling position and greeted her colleagues, her friends.

Ray, a female dragonite, towered over the small group with a height that neared seven feet, making her comparably short with regards to her own species. Ray was the muscle of the team despite being the most relaxed and gentle. Unless told to, Ray wouldn't hurt a fly. She was one of the most delicate members of the group as a single insult could have her hiding in her pokéball for a week. She immediately knelt over Aimee and started trying to get a response, she began to weep hysterically when there was no response.

Flash frowned slightly, looking around to examine the surroundings. He was a 'shiny' ampharos, much to his embarrassment. A shiny coat turned the normal yellow shade of an ampharos' body to a purple one. This had earned Flash insults, to which he always responded with a carefully and expertly directed thundershock. He was often difficult to read, hiding his emotions and, even when angry, not physically showing it. His concern was clear, despite his efforts to hide it and look nonplussed.

The final pokémon, a tiny eevee named Douglas, sat and looked up at Water. He was, in comparison to the others, miniscule in size. He was also shiny, though this simply earned him compliments as it gave him a distinctly unique silver coat. He was, despite his size, quick to fight when told and he was determined to a point where it was almost mad. Similarly, he had a sense of humour that was simply unmatched by anyone else Water had ever met.

"What's happened?" asked Douglas, a slight smile visible on his playful face, "She didn't forget to eat lunch again did she?"

"Now's not the time to joke, Doug," stated Water, "She took an attack from a legendary."

"What was she thinking!" exclaimed Ray in between hysterical, incomprehensible whimpers and cries.

"She was protecting me." replied Water simply, with a tone of shame audible in her voice.

"Again?" sighed Flash, "I thought we'd told her to stop doing that."

"As if she'd listen anyway." said Douglas.

"What're we gonna do?" asked Ray, managing to stop her crying long enough to stand up and wipe away the flurry of tears that poured over her orange scales.

"The sailor who brought us here was supposed to wait," stated Water, "But he left."

"I can't see how that's helpful." stated Douglas.

"Moving Aimee is dangerous," explained Water, "Ray can carry her. The rest of us will have to get into our balls until Ray has reached land. Then she'll release us and we can get Aimee to a hospital."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," stated Flash simply, staring at Ray with somewhat sceptical eyes, "You think you can carry her without becoming hysterical and dropping her into the ocean?"

"If she'd have let me evolve into a glaceon, we wouldn't have this problem!" snapped Douglas angrily.

"How would that have helped?" asked Flash, ever the sceptic.

"I could have frozen the water, made it easier to cross." replied Douglas.

"That doesn't matter," shouted Water, who turned to Ray and asked, "Can you do it?"

Ray nodded.

"Problem solved," stated Water, "Remember to release us. And don't you _dare _fail."


	4. L'Avertissement

**A/N: Yeah, two for you today. Again, this chapter is unbeta-ed.**

Aimée

Chapter Three

L'avertissement

The building consisted of three domes, each with a slightly different shade of wood. Tid could identify the one on the far right as being made of willow as its shade and colour was quite distinctive even as the sun began to plunge behind the horizon. Written in a familiar language, 'Defence League' was written over the entrance of the middle dome, which was a much darker shade of wood which almost appeared to be black, had what little remaining sun not revealed it to be a shade of brown.

It was the dome to the left, the brightest dome, that they walked over to. The door was made of paper and Ice had to ask Tid to open it: his hands being full from carrying supplies. Once open, the door fed into a lobby with a simple layout. There was a wall directly ahead, with a desk in front of it. A door sat on each side of the desk but appeared to feed into the same room. The interior maintained the same variety of wood and there were no ornaments or plants to distract from the receptionist.

"Ice?" asked the pokémon, "Is this the pokémon you found unconscious?"

"Yup," said Ice, "Her name's Tiddles."

"I prefer Tid." she interjected quickly.

Smiling, the receptionist pokémon looked her over. It was a pidgeot, who seemed to be male. His coat was well cared for and around his neck, a black obsidian pendant sat. His eyes were sharp and piercing, making Tid ever so slightly uncomfortable. Thankfully, Ice walked forwards and drew the pidgeot's vision away. Sighing, Tid walked towards the door. Ice noticed this and called out her name, making her turn around to see what he wanted.

"Yeah?" asked Tid.

"Where'd you think you're goin'?" queried Ice, his flippers placed on his hips as though he were an unimpressed mother.

"I'm going to explore outside." responded Tid.

"In the dark," began Ice, "With barely any memory?"

"I'll be back in ten minutes." stated Tid, leaving before Ice could argue.

"Why'd she do that?" asked Ice.

"Must have gotten sick of the sight of you." suggested the pidgeot.

"Shut up, Luft."

Exiting the building, Tid was plunged into darkness. It encompassed everything and there were no lights from the town's centre to guide her. Frowning slightly, she walked forwards, seeing the outline of a tree. She sat at its base and sighed. She'd had very little time to consider her predicament; her hidden memory. She was missing someone. Someone important. She was supposed to be with them. They needed her… but she didn't know who they were.

"A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be frowning."

Tid looked up sharply. The voice rang out, perfectly smooth. In another life, the voice would have concerned her, scared her. Yet, there was something strangely welcoming and friendly about it. She looked around, her breathing halting slightly, as though the action was dangerous. A scoffed snigger drew her attention to the tree's branches above her head. Her head snapped up sharply, observing a creature hidden within the dark maze of the treetop.

"Well, hello."

Two red eyes stared back from within the darkness. Tid leapt to her paws and darted away from the tree with speed that seemed unnatural. The black shadow leapt from the branch and landed where she had stood seconds before. Its red eyes traced her body but sent a shudder down her spine. The creature resembled a predator and a white line of teeth made up a sickly smile. Crouching defensively, Tid stared at the shadow, unsure what to make of its terrifying appearance.

"You could at least say hello."

Sceptically, Tid stood up normally, proudly and tilted her head to the side, observing the shadow from her left eye. Suddenly, bright yellow lights emanated brightly from the creature's body. She instantly recognised the markings. Whatever the pokémon's name, it was an umbreon. She took a wary step backwards as it approached, its glistening red eyes following her movements with analytical and terrifying precision.

"Not the talkative type, are you?"

If it was going to attack her, it would have. Tid watched it sceptically, carefully. She found her muscles relax and her frown fall slightly. She sighed and decided to communicate with the umbreon. It could well have been the shadow that was following her and Ice earlier in the evening. It could be of great importance that she established whether it was a friend or foe. Taking the risk, she decided to speak to the umbreon.

"Usually, yes."

"Now you're talking!" declared the smooth voice of the umbreon, "And what might your name be, little one?"

"Age before beauty."

"Ah, clever as well," complimented the umbreon, "Very well, my name is Ombre."

"The Ombre that Ice was bitching about earlier?"

"Ice was bitching about me?" asked Ombre, "I suppose that's an improvement."

"An improvement?"

"Oh no, sweet," stated Ombre, who had moved to a standing position beside Tid without the tiny eevee even realising that he had moved an inch, "No more answers until you tell me your name."

"Tid."

"Hmm," reflected Ombre, moving away from Tid's side and walking behind her towards the building, "Join us in the meeting room when you're ready. Luft will tell you where it is when you're ready, Tid."

Slightly confused, Tid watched Ombre walk into the dome she had left. She observed that that was perhaps one of the strangest encounters she'd ever had. Though, being as she couldn't remember any of the other ones, it was hard to say. She looked upwards, the moon had claimed the sun's place in the sky and was reflecting its prey's golden light upon the planet. Silver, dappled moonlight coloured Tid's coat in light as she sat beneath the tree.

"Greetings."

Leaping into the air with the vigour of a kangaroo, Tid's heart was sent into overdrive. One creepy shadowy figure sneaking around her was fair enough, she was expecting to have to confront it at some point, but two? Somewhere in the universe, God had lost the ability to count. A frown contorted her face as her eyes scanned the surrounding area. A large black silhouette, far larger than she was expecting, stood on the horizon. The sun's tiniest rays of light peered just behind it.

"Who are you?" asked Tid, her voice laced with little else other than confusion.

"Beware."

"Excuse me?" requested Tid, irritability audible in her voice.

"Watch out."

"Synonyms aren't helping." growled Tid, the irritability quickly turning to anger.

"Your stay here will be short."

"If you're threatening me," grumbled Tid aggressively, "I advise you tread more carefully."

"The Hunters of the Darkness."

"What?" within seconds, anger had been replaced by deeply-seated confusion. She frowned and looked down, briefly raising a paw as though attempting to knead her forehead. She spoke as she looked up, "What do you mean?"

The pokémon was gone. It had vanished with the speed and style she could attribute only to a dark type. The voice didn't belong to Ombre, that much she knew. Frowning and mentally reproaching herself, she walked towards the building. Now that the sun had fallen beyond the horizon, the moon's army of cold had begun to entrap the land. Already, at a somewhat unnatural speed, delicate droplets of dew could be seen forming on the edges of the individual blades of grass.

Though the only thing standing between the cold and the building's innards was a simple paper door, Tid was greeted by a welcoming wave of heat as she crossed the threshold. It seemed to brush the cold off her coat, forcing her to shudder violently. No longer was the harsh air piercing her lungs with icy anger. Instead, warm wisps fluttered down her windpipe, warming her internally as well as externally. She opened her eyes, which she had unknowingly closed, and approached the pidgeot whose name she had established as being Luft.

"Where are they?" asked Tid.

"Guess." replied Luft, a playful light dancing in his strikingly poised face.

"How about," responded Tid, impatience rolling off with her words, "You just tell me?"

"Door to your left, then right then straight ahead and the last door to your left."

"Bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?" asked Tid.

"I believe the humans have a word for that." stated Luft, whose face inadvertently screwed up from the effort of remembering precisely what the word was.

"Tardis." stated Tid, whose memory made yet another break for freedom from behind the black mass that was attempting to withhold it. Luft's eyes lit up though being obscured by a distinctly concerned frown. She gave him no time to query her for it, as she had begun to follow his directions. From the corner of her peripheral vision, a dark and unidentifiable emotion was swept upon the pidgeot's face. Frowning, she continued along to the meeting room.

Opening doors was a challenging task when all you had were fluffy brown paws. Tid sighed as she was forced to open yet another uncooperative door. She hadn't taken very long to establish a long-lasting hatred of the doors and for the doors to express the feeling mutually. Eventually, having given up on the correct method, Tid decided to simply walk through the door which cascaded around her in strips of tissue paper as it was torn from its frame. Though her face expressed the vaguest trace of satisfaction, it appeared as though the door was already promising its vengeance on the subject.

"You took you're time," stated Ice whose tone was critical, "Tiddles."

Being an eevee, the glare of death failed to carry any impact whatsoever. Distantly, a memory called out to her and explained that as a human, her death glare had been renowned the world over. The room was bare except for a large white mat that sat in its centre. It was on this mat that two familiar faces, and one quite unfamiliar face, sat looking up at her expectantly. She eventually took the message and settled herself down on the white mat, comforted by the soft warmth it exhumed when she did so.

"Before we begin," declared Ombre, evidently the de-facto leader, "Moon, this is Tid or Tiddles; Tid, this is Moon."

From the opposite side of the mat, a nervous looking teddiursa smiled and waved. There was something incredibly goofy and uncomfortable about his behaviour. It appeared as though he was uncomfortable in his own skin, and unsure as how social interaction was supposed to be played out. Therefore, he was either very clever and thus socially inept, or he had been isolated and singled out from a young age and had little knowledge of how to behave beyond playing the outcast. She noticed that the same black obsidian hung around his neck.

"Hey there." announced Moon, his voice louder than it needed to be. His voice, with its high, unbroken nature, gave away his nervousness and social ineptness. She knew she'd met his type before and assured herself that at occasional points in her life, she may have even played his role: the role of the outcast.

"So," began Ombre, "You've lost your memory."

"Not lost," corrected Tid, "I just can't get at it. It's there, I can feel them."

"Either way," continued Ombre as though she had interrupted his flow of speech, "We'll lodge you, try and locate people who can help you, until you're fit enough to leave. Or until it becomes a financial liability, which is where Moon comes in. He's our accountant."

It was at this point that Ice leaned over and whispered to Tid something that was wholly suggestive, inappropriate and just plain creepy, "And if you can keep 'im 'appy, chances are he'll let you stay a little longer."

The failed eevee death glare was given but again, there was no response. She mentally noted that this glare would have to be perfected if she expected to get by in any shape way or form. It was whilst delivering the glare that she noticed in the peripheries of her vision, a slightly hopeful gleam appear in the tiny teddiursa's eyes. At this, Tid sighed and regretted with all her heart that the one organisation offering her help in her hour of need consisted entirely of female-deprived males.

"Can I ask something?" requested Tid, trying to distract her mind from the terrifying and frankly disturbing epiphany it had had seconds earlier. When Ombre nodded, Tid continued, "Why has your speech pattern changed?"

"I don't know what you mean." stated Ombre, suddenly cold and indifferent.

Tid frowned, about to probe further, when Ice declared that it was bedtime; a tradition that she had long since outgrown. However, deep in the recesses of her obscured memory, a name and face called out, declaring, screaming, shouting otherwise. It deeply wounded her that she couldn't hear the shouts or identify them. It felt as though she had lost something irrevocably important to her and there appeared to be no way to retrieve it.

Water leapt from the confines of her pokéball with a finesse and determination that she rarely had to express. She was followed by Flash who was still pretending to be nonchalant and a Douglas whose expression was all but unreadable. Ray was a mess. She must have been flying blind: her eyes had turned red from their bloodshot nature and thick streaks of rolling salty droplets stained her face. She was visibly shaking and Aimee's body had been placed on a bench.

They were in the port town that they should have returned to by boat and it infuriated Water to see the sailor walking around in his home, seemingly unbothered by his broken promise. Still, there were far more important matters to attend to, her trainer for instance. They had to find a way of carrying her to the hospital, which was within walking distance, with as little movement as possible. It was unknown if she had taken spinal damage and she had made sure long ago to make sure that they were all well versed in emergency first aid.

"How're we gonna carry her?" asked Ray, voice still audibly shaken. For an incredibly powerful, and often vengeful, female dragonite, Ray failed quite dismally in coping with her emotions. However, no one would dare point this out to her as it could very quickly inspire her into her vengeful mode, and that, was _never_ a good thing. _For anyone_.

"How much do you reckon the local authority pays to maintain that bench?" asked Douglas, seemingly off-topic.

"Couple of dozens every year," estimated Flash coolly, "Why?"

"I feel like a little property damage," stated Douglas, grinning, "Who feels like wrecking up the place?"

"Wrecking and stealing a bench to use as a spinal board?" asked Water, catching the tiny eevee's drift, "Don't ever let me call you an idiot again."

It had taken very little effort to break the bench away from its cement confounds; Water had managed it on her own. Carrying the bench, though, was another matter. Ray, too hysterical to be reliable for such a task, was given the simple order of leading the way to the hospital and keeping Douglas distracted. It was left to Flash and Water to carry the makeshift body-board on which their unconscious, probably comatose, trainer slept somewhat peacefully.

"Will she be alright?" asked Flash. He never liked showing his emotions, Aimee was the only person who could ever force him into doing so, therefore, Water was unsurprised that he waited until the other two were out of hearing range before speaking. Though Flash preferred not to show it, he deeply cared for Aimee and she made sure that he knew she knew. As a result, due to the immensely powerful connection between Aimee and Water, Water had become aware of Flash's deeply soft persona, "Who delivered the blow?"

"I'm not sure," explained Water, "She'd taken severe damage before she was hit. She has a collapsed lung, bleeding internally and it looks like the flight just made the bleeding worse."

"Who did it?" snapped Flash, turning his head away.

"I can't see how that's important right now." stated Water.

"It is," growled Flash, "Because, if she doesn't make it, I'm going to bash their skull, or whatever part of their body is the most readily available, against a rock until it smashes into a million pieces."

"It was a legendary, Flash," rationalised Water, "You're just an ampharos, you can't stand up to one of them. I'm not even sure Ray would stand a chance."

"You haven't seen me when I'm angry."

"I can't imagine I want to either."

"Water!" squealed Ray through tears of grief and delight, "We can see the hospital."

Smiling, Water looked down affectionately at her trainer, whispering, "Hang in there."


	5. L'Obscurité

**A/N: Sorry for the delay, again, unbeta-ed. As an early warning, there won't be any updates between the 20****th**** June and the 4****th**** July. **

**Also, because I only recently noticed that the little line breakers I put in the documents don't show up when published on the site, I've put 'meanwhile…'. Not perfect, I know but it does the job.**

**Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing and reading!**

Aimée

Chapter Four

L'obscurité

"Where are we going?" queried Tid, bounding after the group of pokémon leading the way. She found it secretly very annoying that she was forced to leap from place to place like an unruly child just to keep up with the others. They had longer legs and even Ice, who waddled along uncomfortable, was able to gain a great distance from Tid in a matter of mere seconds. It infuriated the tiny eevee who seemed to remember a time where she would walk and others would be left coughing on the dust that was lifted by her feet.

"To see Oracle." stated Ombre simply. Frowning, Tid glared at his back. It was something she'd noticed very quickly. He seemed to have a very cold and indifferent tone, with barely any noticeable inflection, when speaking around other pokémon but for some reason, when speaking to her and her alone, he would adopt an annoying and sinisterly dark tone. Of course, when she'd questioned him about it, all she'd received was a nonchalant yet confused reply. He was either trying to annoy her or defend some carefully constructed image, probably both upon closer inspection.

"Who?" asked Tid.

"Oracle." repeated Ombre.

"…" Tid paused, trying to restrain the inevitable twitch that erupted in her left eye, "That's not what I meant. Who is 'Oracle'? What are they, what do they do?"

"Perhaps you should be clearer in future." stated Ombre. His voice gave no indication of it but she knew. Deep down, there was a little fire of satisfaction burning. He was taking pleasure in making her look, not only stupid, but also incredibly inept at everything. Though realising that it would carry no weight, Tid was unable to prevent the characteristic glare of death from being fired at him with an intensity of hatred so profound, Ice shuffled slightly to the side out of fear.

"Oracle is a Medite," explained Moon, "People go to her if they have a problem."

"Ah," nodded Tid, "Like an agony aunt."

The four-strong group guiding her path stopped abruptly. They all turned around sharply, giving Tid just a second to stop herself from bounding right into them. Kicking up a stream of dusty grit as her paws scratched the floor in an attempt to prevent herself unintentionally tackling them, she ended up sitting like a cat. Looking up at them with large, glisteningly innocent eyes, the group found themselves suddenly unable to question the overwhelmingly human turn of phrase she had used. Turning back around and continuing their march forwards, Tid frowned in confusion before joining them, determined to catch up with them.

"We're here." stated Luft.

"Where's 'here'?" asked Tid, unable to see as the group had paused directly in front of her; completely blocking out her vision. Frowning, she had to wait for them to step to the side before light flooded her eyes, reflecting the wonderful scenery around her. Gasping slightly, her mind was able only to communicate, "Wow."

It was a forest clearing, a clearing which branched off from the town itself. The clearing was bathed in the early morning sunlight, which was a mixture of wonderfully vibrant yellows and warm, deep reds that formed in between the two, luscious oranges that coated the water in a film of colour. A moat of water surrounded a tiny rock, upon which tiny gems of sapphire and ruby glistened in the light, reflecting thousands of rainbow shards upon the thick, wild grass that coated the clearing's floor and entrance.

Trees of terrifying height shielded the flanks and entrance of the clearing, allowing dappled sunlight to delicately dance in the shadows caused by the rising sun. At the very back of the clearing, a cliff-face stood. Sharp and strong, the granite grey of the cliff was intermittently disrupted by lively colourful plants which hung precariously and bravely over the miniature ledges which protruded from the cliff at varying levels. Along the bottom of the cliff, a row of hedges sat, as though obscuring something from view and from the rising sun's omniscient gaze.

Upon the rock, which sat at the clearing's centre, was a medite. Eyes closed, the medite seemed to be completely relaxed and yet, at the same time, totally aware of their presence. The two bright orbs opened, revealing pupils so dilated that it was briefly impossible to even spot the tiny black circles against the bright blue ocean of Oracle's eyes. Two shimmering sapphires sat still within her palms, seeming to glow with their own light rather than that provided by the waking sun as it began to peer curiously over the distant horizon.

"Greetings," stated Oracle with a speech pattern that seemed familiar, "How may I be of assistance?"

"Tid, here," stated Ombre, indicating the tiny eevee with his paw, "Has completely lost her memory. We thought that maybe you would be capable of telling her how to retrieve it or, if not, exactly what happened to cause her memory loss."

"I will see what I am capable to surmise for you," declared Oracle, "Now, young one, sit before me."

Frowning and with a feeling of innate scepticism, Tid sat herself down on the patch of grass directly before the medite. Despite feeling incredibly stupid, Tid found herself hoping that perhaps Oracle could reveal something. Her body fell slack suddenly, causing a rising feeling of panic to engulf her. She had lost all control of her body and her eyelids snapped shut with an audible sound that disturbed her greatly. Struggling fruitlessly against whatever it was that was controlling her, Tid found herself able to relax once the assailant had identified themselves.

_Calm down, _stated Oracle, her voice recognisable even in thought, _Your body shuts down as a defence when a foreign body enters your mind. I will search through your mind, you will be able to see what it is I am doing but you will be unable to interfere._

_I'm not sure I like this. _stated Tid apprehensively.

_It is not necessary that you do, _retorted Oracle, _Now, please silence yourself._

Resisting the very real urge to slap Oracle, even though Tid was both unable to move and unable to hit a mental presence, Tid grumbled angrily. The growl of the little eevee reverberated in both her mind and the clearing outside. Though carrying no threat, the underlying annoyance of it was very clear and the group which had escorted Tid to the clearing seemed slightly perturbed by the pure anger that rumbled at the heart of the seemingly innocent growl of irritation.

Oracle fumbled around Tid's mind, it was odd. The mind is not laid out in any particular way; it does not appear as a room or an office. It can, if the person wills it so, but for Tid, the idea of organising her mind had never appeared to her. Thus, her mind was a vast mess. It was a blank canvas whose colour swirled and changed wildly from second to second. When prompted, a memory or thought or piece of knowledge would flash up, briefly obliterating all colour and engulfing the screen with its presence before vanishing, being stored somewhere unseen.

It was when Oracle was retrieving these thoughts, ideas and memories that Tid was able to view them. Knowledge of the world was there, as well as a surprisingly vast series of observations that had barely even crossed Tid's conscious mind. However, there was a distinct pause where nothing disturbed the swirling colours on the screen of Tid's mind. Oracle, it seemed, had ran out of things to look at. There was nothing left. Unable to see anything but the vast colour canvas of her mind, a mental image of Tid sat before it, frowning slightly.

_What's wrong? _queried Tid, unable to prevent the word apprehension appearing on the screen of her mind, revealing her emotional state to Oracle. Frowning slightly, the screen observed that she had become embarrassed and openly declared that information as well. Sighing, Tid looked away from the screen, attempting in vain to ignore its running commentary of her emotions and thoughts.

_It is peculiar, _observed Oracle whose voice seemed to carry a certain cheerfulness, as though she had been humoured by something which Tid later deduced to be the running commentary provided by her mind's canvas, _There are memories and thoughts beyond those I have uncovered but they are obscured. _

_Obscured? _asked Tid, _By what?_

_It is a vast black mass of darkness, nothing can penetrate it, _explained Oracle, _There is a section of your mind which has been completely stained by darkness. I am not entirely confident that this section can ever truly be recovered._

_What does that mean? _snapped Tid aggressively, the canvas turning red.

_I cannot recover your memories. They are most assuredly there but if there is a way to retrieve them, you must discover said way yourself,_ elaborated Oracle, _I am leaving your mind now. You shall regain control of your body but forget all I have said here._

_Then this whole mental conversation seems a bit pointless. _stated Tid.

_Indeed it is, _agreed Oracle, _I will explain everything I have here, once we are outside._

Returning from the canvas of her mind was an unpleasant experience. Tid was thrown into her body with sudden and careless vigour, feeling immediately winded. Unable to move briefly, her body shivered, making her uncomfortable in her own skin. Once orientated, Tid stood up and shook herself off, backing away to join the group with whom she regarded the word 'safe' as synonymous. They watched her intently, as though both curious and confused as to her reaction, before their attention was dragged to Oracle who was exhibiting a similar physical reaction, much to Tid's satisfaction.

"Well?" asked Ice, "You gonna tell us what happened or not?"

"The memories are there but they are hidden away from her," explained Oracle, "She can neither access, nor view them and the few that are able to slip past are uncontrolled and sporadic at best."

"What can we do to help her?" asked Luft.

"It is difficult to know," replied Oracle, "The memories may return on their own, they may never return at all. Perhaps it would be better to seek specialist advice."

"From?" asked Ice.

"I am afraid I do not know the answer to that question."

Frowning, Tid sighed noisily. The group took that as a sign to leave; Oracle could offer no further information and seemed more interested in sounding enigmatic and clever than helping them anyway. Ombre thanked Oracle for her time, allowing himself a slight bow of the head before telling the group to depart. As the five-strong group began to cross the threshold that would take them to the path leading them back to the town, Oracle called out, requesting they pause for a short second.

"Little eevee," she began, "You are stained with darkness."

Confused, Tid frowned distinctly, her brow contorted by the familiar emotion caused by lack of knowledge. The group, though having paused for significantly longer than they had assumed they would, turned around and departed. Pondering the knowledge passed onto them by Oracle, they remained in silence as they walked back to the guild. At least, they remained in silence until Ice opened his mouth, after which conversation disrupted the early morning stroll.

"What did she say?" queried Ice, "'Stained with darkness'?" Ice paused and looked at Ombre with a raised eyebrow, "What have you been up to, Ombre?"

"EURGH!" shouted Tid, "You are disgusting!"

"Ice," assured Ombre, "Only in a world as dirty as your mind, would Oracle mean that. You need to stop taking words at face value."

"My lessons of reading between the lines have clearly," admonished Luft, "Flown right over your head."

"No, they went in his head," stated Moon, "They just leapt out the other side."

"No," added Tid, "He's just an idiot."

A consensual nod passed amongst the group, leaving Ice to sulk in silence for the proceeding two minutes before his mouth could no longer withhold the surging waves of mental garbage that were flowing without end from his mind. Though finding Ice both dirty-minded and annoying, Tid found him quite amusing. He was, in her mind, like an older brother. As Ice allowed another stupid comment to come out of his mouth, Tid added that he was like a very stupid older brother, who, perhaps, was on a suicide mission.

"What do humans call those yellow things?" asked Ice, "The yellow things they eat?"

"Bananas?" suggested Tid, again not knowing where the word came from.

"Yeah!" declared Ice, "Bananas look stupid."

"Thank you for that undoubtedly very important piece of information," droned Ombre sarcastically, "I'm sure we'll all be better off for knowing that bananas look stupid in the personal opinion of one, equally, if not more, stupid piplup."

"I'm not sure I understood that sentence." stated Ice.

"Good." stated Ombre.

"I think he hates me."

"Ice," informed Luft cheerfully, "Everybody hates you."

"You don't hate me do you," pleaded Ice with large, watering eyes, "Tid?"

Tid paused, her paw not quite connecting with the gritty ground below. A slight smile fell upon her face before she began bounding lightly again, deep brown eyes deliberately scanning the ground to avoid eye contact with those of the tiny piplup. The pause didn't go unnoticed, due to its vast and very obvious duration. Skipping alongside Ombre and Luft, with Moon and Ice trailing behind, Tid began to think she'd gotten away with her cunning ploy to pretend to have not heard Ice. Her cunning ploy, however, had not gone unnoticed.

"Tid?" asked Ice.

Tid shifted her eyes at a speed almost undetectable by the analytical umbreon to her left. Suddenly, she ran, running at speeds that were surprisingly fast for an eevee of such tiny proportions. The group were almost shocked by her speed, before coming to the conclusion that she was clearly using the move known by the humans as 'agility' which, in reality, was just running very _very _fast.

Meanwhile….

Ray paced the waiting room. Everybody was watching her. It was a human hospital and so pokémon, generally speaking, weren't allowed outside of their pokéballs. They made exceptions, of course, but even then, it was normally _small _pokémon that were entitled to the right of sitting in the waiting room. Certainly, a dragonite pacing around a human waiting room was almost definitely without past precedent.

However, that wasn't the only reason everyone was watching her. She was very _very _upset. Tears were streaming down her face, rolling over her orange scales as they flushed past her bloodshot eyes with the power of a tsunami. Most of the people in the room were terrified of what would happen if they so much as moved. Dragonites had fearsome reputations as it was without adding the fact that Ray was supremely stressed and very hormonal. She was also extraordinarily vengeful, making her at that very moment, the most dangerous pokémon in the hospital.

"I think Ray's scaring them." stated Water redundantly.

"Nope," stated Douglas, "It's definitely Flash's face."

"Oh, shut up." snapped Flash, glaring with all the intensity possible. However, given as he was a 'shiny' ampharos, and therefore purple, it was sometimes difficult to take him seriously – being as purple is often regarded as a feminine colour. Well, difficult until he sent a thousand volts of electricity through you. He was very careful though, he avoided using a fatal level of amps, aware that it was current that posed the greatest threat to humans and not, as is common belief, voltage.

"No, no, no," muttered Ray frantically, "It's all wrong, all wrong. She can't be, no. Water said, she'll be fine. If anything happens, that sailor, he should have stayed there. If he'd stayed, she'd have got help faster, she'd get better faster…"

"I don't think the insane muttering is helping." stated Water.

"She can't hear you," stated Flash, "If she goes insane, Aimee _will _kill us."

"No," retorted Douglas, a cheeky grin on his face, "She'll kill _you._ I'm far too cute."

"WATER!"

Water's head shot up involuntarily. Ray paused, turning to face the exclamation, almost in perfect sync the other pokémon present. Standing in the doorway were Aimee's family. The mother's eyes were as tear stained, red and watery as Ray's and her pudgy human face had turned bright red and blotchy. The father, though evidently distressed, appeared as though he had far more control over the occasional rolling tear that escaped when he was distracted. The son, just turned eleven, was emotionless and blank, apparently in a state of shock. The entire group seemed relieved to have found some familiar faces.

Running over, the mother, known as Chris, leapt and hugged Water with a strength that almost strangled the deeply surprised swampert. Salty tears cascaded onto Water's moist skin as the swampert comforted Chris, patting her back and rubbing against her affectionately, aware that any communication would not be understood, not without Aimee anyway. Chris was wearing pyjamas beneath her coat, presumably having been woken up and coming without changing. Her shortly cut, blond-dyed hair was messy and had clearly not bee brushed by anything except her frantic hands.

The father, Al, which was short for Alphonse, walked over to Ray. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the tall, orange dragonite. He had a power over her that could only be replicated by Aimee and Professor Oak himself. His touch silenced her mutterings and, though unable to stop the constant flow of tears and occasional whimper, managed to get her to sit down. Al had jeans and a pyjama top on, all covered up by a trench coat which he rarely wore. His black hair was cut short and was never brushed so any suggestions that he had just woken up lay only in the massive grey bags that sat beneath his dull blue eyes.

Luke, Aimee's younger brother continued to stand in the waiting room's doorway, unable to move, planted to the ground as though roots had suddenly sprouted from his trainers. Noticing the young boy's distress, despite his emotionless face, Douglas bounded over though his bound was significantly less cheerful and playful than it had once been. Affectionately rubbing the legs of the young boy, brushing himself against the jean's material as though he were a persian or delcatty, Douglas managed to encourage the boy to sit on one of the chairs. The dull green eyes seemed to brighten slightly as Douglas sat on Luke's lap to try and reassure him.

"It's good to see you." exclaimed Chris, her voice bleeding brief joy.

Water nodded, aware that without Aimee, the so-called Pokémon Translator, it would be impossible for Chris or any other human to understand her. Some humans, she noticed over the years, were close. Some seemed able to feel the emotions of a pokémon and guess the words that would be spoken if pokémon had the vocal apparatus necessary to speak English. In this situation, however, the group had no need to communicate with words because their emotions spoke louder anything that could ever be communicated with sounds.

"Aimee…" whispered Water, as forlorn as an abandoned child.


	6. L'Enlèvement

**A/N: Thanks to you wonderful reviewers and I'm sorry for the huge delay. I was in Germany for two weeks without easy access to a computer, so, my apologies.**

**Thanks to 'S' for your anonymous and wonderful review, glad its helping! Anyways, back to the story and you can expect another update by Sunday at the latest, if all goes to plan.**

Aimée

Chapter Five

L'enlèvement

Tid was awoken to a cacophony of pure noise, each resounding note equally as incomprehensible as the first. Her long, fluffy brown ears flattened instinctively against her skin, as though attempting to hug her, muffling the dreadful sound out. Eyes scrunched up to signal the discomfort expressed by the sound receptors in her ears, she was unable to see Ice waddling calmly through the screaming sirens. Her only warning of Ice's presence was when he announced it by poking her in the forehead with one of his pale blue flippers. She cursed mentally as his face fell into view.

"C'mon," snapped Ice, in a tone indicating his apparent disgust at Tid's incapability to handle the terrible sounds as they echoed vividly and noisily around the large and mostly empty wooden room, "You lazy sod! Ombre's waitin' for ya."

Raising an eyebrow slightly, Tid struggled to her tree-trunk thick legs as the screeching sirens bombarded her mind with sheer, unadulterated sound waves of impossible sense. She followed Ice as he waddled out of the room, refusing to hold open the paper white door for Tid, who promptly proceeded to walk through the damned thing. Despite greatly enjoying the tearing sound produced by the flimsy material as she strode through it, she was assured by Ice that the doors would find a way to exact their revenge on the tiny little eevee.

Walking into the reception, Tid's vision was totally engulfed by the sight of an unfamiliar face. An absol, whose sparkling black eyes stared at her with a terrifyingly icy intensity, stood at the desk. Presumably, it had been talking to Luft, whom sat behind the reception desk with Ombre to his left. Ice waddled doggedly over to the desk and looked expectantly at Ombre before the two began babbling away in a language of unfamiliar terms and acronyms. In the meantime, the absol walked over to Tid, who was frozen in the creature's shadow like a rabbit caught in the light of a car's headlights.

"You should be careful." stated the absol nonchalantly, as though what it'd said was a throw-away comment of no more importance than a simple 'hello'.

"Why?" asked Tid, defiant against a force she wasn't even sure was worth fighting against, "You're the second pokémon to tell me that. What's going on? Don't tell me there's a 'secret enigma club' and you get kicked out if you don't do something textbook enigmatic at least every other day."

The absol raised an eyebrow, clearly meaning to do so critically and sceptically of Tid's statement. Despite the absol's seemingly normal reaction, its huge sparkling eyes of obsidian crystal continued to bear into Tid's own, as though tearing her apart mentally. Tid took a step back, a move which, as the conversation, did not go unnoticed by her new colleagues. Ombre leapt over the till in an invisibly deft and agile movement, landing in the shadow that sat ominously between Tid and the absol. The threatening yellow markings on his body flared up brightly, emitting a warm, sunny yellow colour that hid a dangerous motive.

"We do not take kindly to that sort of behaviour here," began Ombre, whose red eyes glistened with intense hatred, "I suggest that you leave."

The absol looked up, and, seemingly prepared to ignore Ombre's own warning, stared with gaping black holes directly at Tid. Resisting the urge to back away once more, Tid had to deeply repress a resounding sigh of relief as the black-white terror turned around and walked out of the building. Ombre nodded approvingly before he span one hundred and eight degrees to face Tid. She was expecting the hero's 'are you alright' line but she had been completely unprepared for the sheer intensity of emotion in his ruby red eyes.

"You alright-" he began, though audibly cutting off the rest of the sentence. The words 'my sweet' were visible as ghosts as they rested on his mouth for a couple of seconds. Tid smile slightly, noting mentally that Ombre was as capable as all normal pokémon in his ability to allow an unconscious slip of the tongue.

"Thanks to you," replied Tid, her smile contorting, without her knowledge, to a devilish smirk as she continued her statement, "Though, really, he was just intimidating me. There was no real guarantee that he would have done anything to me."

There was a brief silence of tangible and stifling awkwardness between Tid's reply and the next speaker. Tid and Ombre may well have stared at each other the whole time, had it not been for Tid's many buckets of self-awareness. Though, as Tid later observed, it would have been worth the self-embarrassment just to watch Ice and Luft squirm. Once the seemingly lengthy stare had ceased and desisted, Tid turned to see Ice and Luft shifting uncomfortably and fidgeting as though nervous. Tid smiled evilly, which was taken by Ice to mean that he could speak and vocalize his normally pointless thoughts once again.

"So what was this about a mission?" asked Ice.

**Some time later… **

Though expecting to be sent to a forest, Tid was unable to hide her surprise when Ice lead her to a dense area of forestry known colloquially as 'Bright Woods'. Despite a seemingly harmless name, the forest hid a sinister secret. Beautiful at most times of the day, a precisely midday, for a period of two minutes, the sun's glare is capable of permanently blinding any unfortunate pokémon with their eyes open at the time. They had all day though as the sun had completed its daily round of disabling a large population of the forest.

"Hurry up!" snapped Ice, waddling through the tall grass as though the forest within which the grass lay was simply decoration; as though the real challenge was in fact the spindly stems of weeding green mess, to which Tid would agree.

Like oppressive inner city towers, the stems of grass strove defiantly into the sky, imitating the tall trees themselves. What little dappled light shone through the labyrinth of leaves above, danced nimble upon the luscious grass mess, bathing them in a lighter shade of colour than would normally be observed with the eyes. Surrounding the tall terrors of grass was the main body of the forest. Thick benches of brown bark lay helplessly on the floor, shielded only by the trees that had not been felled. These remaining trees leant over them, their leaves forming an almost entirely black mass of shadows, protecting the two pokémon as they battled their way through the grass.

The lack of light concerned Tid greatly, who was suspicious of the forest. To her observant eyes, the shadows shifted, seeming to change in the darkness, as though there was something, several things, following them. Tid tried to ignore them as they sped like bullets in the peripheries of her vision, darting like excited and dangerous monsters. Unknowingly, she quickened her pace, turning her slow, battling movements into bounding, panicked leaps. Ice, now walking beside her, watched her sceptically, as though her increase in speed hid questionable motives.

"What's up?" asked Ice, voicing his disapproval.

"I think something's following us." stated Tid, stopping still in her tracks to converse with the other member of the party.

Ice frowned slightly. His glistening sapphire eyes sparkled with fear as his imagination contorted the shadows into shapes. Circling and turning on his patch of grass, he flung his flippers about in exasperation, acting out a performance similar to that of a surrounded criminal. His eyes fell upon Tid's who had yet to see the creatures emerging slowly and purposefully from the darkness of the forest. Noticing the plea in his silent face, Tid looked about, quickly experiencing the same fear.

She recognised them immediately as a collection of dark-type pokémon. There were twenty of so of them all poochyena or houndoor; with one houndoom leading the pack and approaching slowly. With red eyes, whose colouring resembled that of the blood in her veins, the pack leader strolled forwards. His eyes wandered, as though trying to avoid attracting attention. When he stood less than a metre away, he ceased movement and smirked, seeming to enjoy seeing the young rescue team squirm in his shadow.

"What do you want?" snapped Ice, whose aggressive tone failed to bat an eyelid.

"We want your friend," stated the houndoom as though the answer were both astoundingly simple and obvious, "She has something we need."

Stunned into silence, Tid's body turned into a living statue, barely breathing as the scene unfolded. Her eyes glistened, though a sheen of clear confusion sat over them and it outwardly appeared as though she was having trouble with simply comprehending the situation. Unbeknownst to Ice, a nearby houndour had long since cast swagger, resulting in an unfortunately overpowered and disorientated Tid.

"What," began Ice, "Like good looks?"

"Your friend is already confused," warned the houndoom, "Leave now and we need not harm you as well."

"Make me." provoked Ice stupidly.

With a nod of the head, Ice's world was engulfed by fire, its ferocity knocking him out with ease. Through fading black vision, Ice was helpless as he watched the pack drag the confused and terrified Tid away. Suddenly, his world went truly black, providing him with no further information that could have been of use in their bid later that day to rescue their kidnapped friend.

**Meanwhile…**

Ray hadn't really given them a choice. An angry, vengeful dragonite is not the best of friends at the best of times. Though initially refusing the request of Aimee's parents to let us into the intensive care ward, Ray had only to ruffle her wings to force them into submission. Both Douglas and Water had suppressed giggles as the doctors and nurses fell over themselves to help them and Aimee's family. However, this cheerful disposition had not lasted long.

Although not understand the request of the doctors to be prepared for the worst, the pokémon were prepared for just that. Douglas, partly to comfort Ray, and partly to feel tall, sat on Ray's shoulders like an uncooperative scarf. His soft, fluffy, brown fur did little to comfort Ray as she was unable to feel it through her thick orange hide of scales. As such, there was nothing to reassure her when her heart tore itself in two, leaving a bloody weeping mess in her chest that she imitated with unnatural perfection.

First in the room, Water had the privilege of measuring the others' reactions. Ray, rightfully so, betrayed her grief and horror with tears. Douglas, face normally bursting with visible joy, attempted and failed to hide a terrified, surprised and distraught interior. Similarly, Flash was unable to maintain his calm and cool disposition as his glistening eyes shimmered with deathly delicate tears of salty poison. Water herself was no more concerned than she had been originally. The parents had blubbered helplessly into each other's arms and Aimee's brother stood in perfect stillness, held up straight only by his shock.

Aimee had been given her own room, to which she, in her white hospital bed, was the central piece. Accompanying pieces of contemporary machinery beeped noisily in time with her heartbeat and flashed a chorus of colours around the room. Breathing almost silently in the dimmed bright light, Aimee's skin was bathed in sweat despite a seemingly peaceful complexion. Aimee's left hand sat outside the pure white sheets, occasionally twitching and convulsing. This hand was quickly engulfed by Water's soft blue, slightly damp skin.

"Aimee," sighed Water, "Please wake up soon. We need you," pausing and seeing Aimee's family hovering nervously beside the hysterically distraught Ray, "We **all** need you," she paused again, "Especially Douglas, his jokes get worse every minute you're not here."

"Watch it," yelled Douglas, "Fin face!"

"You know she's right," stated Flash, "They are."

"Yeah but you don't need to _say _that!" retorted Douglas.

The conversation, without Aimee's translation, simply bemused the humans present, who were unable to tell if it were just jesting or whether it was an anger-fuelled argument. As such, they began whispering amongst themselves in English forgetting that it was understood easily by the pokémon. Eventually, Aimee's mother approached Water, placing a fleshy pink hand on the amphibian's damp skin. Water looked up sharply, her eyes covered in a teary blank sheen of one trying to look and be strong for the sake of others. Smiling, the human acknowledged that the connection between Aimee and Water was strong, perhaps stronger than her own.

"She'll wake up," she assured, "There's nothing tying her down anywhere but with us."

"Well," stated Flash, "I'm not sure _anyone_ would want to see Douglas's face again."

Douglas glared angrily, though taking the joke as a compliment from Flash who rarely spoke at all. Flash quickly realised this and turned away, his eyes averting nervously, as though embarrassed. Despite the brief moment of humour, silence followed swiftly once the beeping overtook the noise of voice. Water looked down at Aimee, realising suddenly how surprisingly delicate the girl actually was. She always put on the front of being strong, and Water had always believed it, but now, Aimee was severely, critically injured and in a coma.

"I'll never let you save me again," stated Water, "Saving you is my job and your job is to let _me_ save _you_."

Water sighed and leant into the bed's frame. Placing her head, easily the size of Aimee's chest, on the patient's arm, she listened intently for the rhythmic thumping of the trainer's heart. When she finally heard it, it drowned out all other screeching sound as her heavy eyelids betrayed her and sleep soon followed.


	7. La Capture

A/N: Sorry for the late update! Next one's a bit more action packed and… is anyone reading this? Anyway, enjoy:

Aimée

Chapter Six

La capture

Tid awoke slowly, surprised and deeply distressed by the snail-pace with which her body was choosing to respond. She could hear words, spoken in a language undeniably familiar to her, however the words whispered wistfully within her ears, turning into incoherent hisses of sound. Her lack of understanding terrified her to her core. Particularly when her mind could distinguish that the tones of the words were somehow threatening and dangerous, carrying undertones that carried potentially harmful meanings for her.

Her brain, however, soon became preoccupied with a series of dissident scents that filled her nose with a smell so putrid that her stomach lurched violently, prevented from heaving only by her pure will. The scents were so strong that they sat on her tongue as she breathed in, halting there as if intending to leave nothing to her imagination. The taste was enough to bring bile to her mouth, but thankfully not enough for the bile to extend beyond that particular realm.

Once her eyes were able to open, or once she had caught enough of her wits to remember that opening her eyes was, generally speaking, a good idea, she resisted the urge to whimper. Her vision was blurred beyond recognition, making it difficult for her to see anything except a collection of incomprehensible black blurs. Shaking her head around frantically, she became aware that she was tied town to a board of some description, a fact that served only to increase the steadily rising levels of adrenalin in her blood stream.

"She awakes!" cried out a voice.

Tid groaned dully, her eyes rolling without her control before falling upon the still blurry figure of a pokémon, whom she could recognise as being a houndoom. The very same houndoom that she had seen before she was knocked unconscious and, presumably, dragged off. It was in this moment that Tid's brain leapt into full capacity, the cogs beginning to turn at rates that were normal for the tiny little eevee. Frowning, her head shot about the cave wildly, ignoring the fine details in search of the familiar light blue.

"Where is he?" growled Tid, the growl rolling in her throat as thunder roars loudly and threateningly during a storm. Despite her laughable size, the threat in her eyes was as clear as a diamond to those present and though unable to consider what she would do to them, her glare struck fear into them in spite of her form, "Where is Ice?"

"Ice?" queried the houndoom before her, the only pokémon that did not cower away and avert their ruby red eyes in fear. The houndoom, laughed slightly, tilting its head to the side and sizing her up as though she were a piece of unpleasant meat, "That pathetic excuse for a piplup? We left him where we found him."

"Is he hurt?" snapped Tid, the growl rising and falling like the steady, rhythmic beat of her heart as it pounded away underneath her soft fluffy brown coat, "He better not be." 

"I would be more concerned for myself," explained the houndoom, "If I were you."

"Well, unfortunately," retorted Tid, "You're a hell of a lot uglier, now where am I?" 

"I'd have imagined you would have figured that much out yourself."

Glaring briefly in disgust, Tid averted her eyes, moving them around in an attempt to gain some bearings. However, the only thing she could identify was that she was in a cave. A cave that recalled from the depths of her mind some blurring memory that caused a stabbing pain in her chest. Ceiling high above, pointed stone daggers hung precariously above them, threatening to skewer them should they create too much noise. The cave seemed to dip downwards to her left, as though the thing was a hill whose gradient increased until there was a sudden ninety degree drop.

A delicate trickle of water could be heard dripping and dropping as it passed underneath the heavily breathing pack of dark-type pokémon surrounding her only exit; a light to her right that led out into what she presumed to be Bright Woods. The air was cold and thus flurries of white smoke seemed to emanate from the mouths of the pokémon present. Considering some of those present were more than capable of unleashing a torrent of fluttering flames from their mouths, Tid's stab of fear was more than understandable.

"A cave?" queried Tid, "How imaginative. What will you think of next?"

"Well, for starters," explained the houndoom who nonchalantly stepped to the side to reveal a golden-white shape sitting calmly behind him, "We're going to pull His essence from within you. Then we're going to summon Him and then, well, I'm sure we'll find something for you to do… if you're still alive."

"Sorry… what?"

**Elsewhere…**

"ICE!"

Ice blinked. His vision was still blurred so he decided to blink again. However, to his disappointment, the two previous blinks did nothing to improve his watery vision. Therefore, he blinked again, only to find that his head was lurched into a swimming pool as his body was lifted abruptly upwards. Dizziness engulfing all sensation, it took a good ten seconds before Ice realised that the black blob in front of him was an unfortunately familiar face. It took another three seconds for him to realise that it was actually an extraordinarily useful face to turn up.

"Ombre!" declared Ice, leaping to his feet as though he'd just been napping quietly for the past twenty minutes, "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"Where's Tid?" snapped Ombre, jumping onto the point as though it were his next meal and as though he'd been starved for the past five years. His red eyes burned ferociously of an emotion that was concealed very badly behind a farce of concern. The true emotion lay beneath, bubbling like an almighty volcano threatening to erupt and take Ombre's soul by force, laying it bare to those he regarded as his friends, though they would say otherwise.

Ice frowned at the question and looked around sharply, as though hoping that perhaps the whole thing had been a prank gone wrong and that Tid would jump out of the ethers pointing and laughing at them in a mocking tone that he just _knew _she was capable of. Due to it not being a prank, however, Ice found that his heart sank to the floor as his sapphire eyes scanned the forest. She had been taken away by a group of pokémon and he had no idea where to. Ombre would no doubt skin him once the entire thing had ended with Tid's safe return. He didn't want to know what Ombre would do if it ended without Tid's safe return.

"ICE!" shouted Ombre, whose voice roared with intensity that struck the fear of God into the comparably tiny piplup, "Where is Tid?"

Ice looked downwards, his eyes drifting subconsciously to the place he'd seen them drag Tid off to. His beak opened partly, as though he intended to speak but thought better of it before the liquid words could fall like rain in a storm from his mouth. Ombre, looking at him with eyes so sharp and focused they could cut through diamond itself, walked to where he was standing and followed the line of Ice's vision. As though knowing where it led, Ombre leapt off into a rhythmic run which Ice knew he would be unable to keep up with.

"Tiddles," assured Ice, who began waddling furiously after Ombre despite being aware that he'd never manage the same pace, "We're comin' for ya."

**In the meantime…**

Tid whimpered. She'd gotten past the stage of roaring, of crying, of screeching so loud that her throat threatened to tear itself apart in protest. It was an attempt to distract her mind from the pain. How that particular theory worked, she had no idea, but at the time it was the only thing she could focus her mind on. Her whimper, pathetic and as helpless as her body, echoed around the cave, followed by a distinctly ghostly chorus of laughter and sniggers, mocking her pain. She rolled her head backwards and looked upwards, almost trying to will the stone daggers to pierce her tiny little body just to end the agony.

It was by no means a physical attack. It was an attack of the mind, of the psyche. A ninetales with a coat of suitably ironic golden-white, whose eyes glistened with a purple light in contrast to the expected red light, sat a metre away, its nine tails straightened out and shimmering in the light of the visible purple flames. The pokémon was attempting to pull out the dark cloud, the black sheet that sat over Tid's memories like an ominously grey storm cloud thundering and flashing in the not too far away distance. Tid had not been expecting it to hurt so much.

Another sharp tug at the sheet caused a flicker of pain to shoot through her mind like a speeding bullet through glass; shattering what it broke into millions of tiny pieces that can never be truly fixed. Panting heavily, Tid's eyes fell behind their eyelids in an attempt to find some peace, some solace in the darkness. As the process continued, the cover of void in her mind began to peel away, memories shimmering through like blinding white lights.

**Distantly…**

The others had long since left the room, leaving Water and Aimee on their own again. It was during moments like this that Water made no effort to conceal the saline droplets that she suffered during the day, allowing them to roll freely down her face. Her head continued to rest heavily on the chest of her childhood friend, her comatose childhood friend. The two of them had been together virtually their entire lives and it was a fact that made Aimee's other pokémon slightly jealous. It had been joked on many an occasion that the two had begun to share a link so strong that it bordered on the telepathic.

Water remembered their first encounter only because it stuck in her mind as an eventful day. She remembered seeing the tiny little human with the pudgy arms of pink, sticky skin and recalled wondering what importance such a small child could have. They shared a look, the pair of them: her own eyes, the eyes of curiosity in the face of a human, and those of Aimee, whose eyes did, and always will, glisten with an insatiable thirst for adventure and danger. It was a look that intrigued her then and she decided that she should remember it more often, if only to remind herself how beautiful the sense of adventure in her trainer's eyes is.

Wrapping a damp, blue flipper hand around Aimee's now tiny pink hand, Water was disturbed to find it coated in a layer of salty sweat whose heat was comparable only to that of the coldest ocean depths. Frowning, Water listened intently to the rhythmic heartbeat of Aimee, with whom her own heart had been long since aligned, as though expecting some irregularity to leapt out at her with panicked vigour. No such revelation arrived. Instead, the heartbeat seemed slightly quickened, as though Aimee were somehow experiencing fear or terror; emotions which bought a dull, painful stab of cold concern to Water's own heart.

"Aimee," whispered Water, closing her ocean blue eyes as she attempted to connect with her trainer, "Tell me what's wrong. Let me help you. We need you back."

Shockingly, the reply was sudden and violent. A mental connection was savagely forged, forged in a panicked terror that Water had never known Aimee to experience. The connection was brief, briefer than conversations with Aimee's family but it was enough to leave a lasting impact on Water who sprang away from Aimee's body in surprise and shock. As the screaming that had shattered her mind began to settle into Water's mind, she became aware that whatever was happening to Aimee at that moment was causing her great pain, intolerable pain, unnecessary pain.

Water was suitably furious. She stood upwards and let out a cry of grief. Doctors immediately came running into the room, armed with sedatives as they had already assumed that something like that would have happened. Water was too busy crying, literally and mentally, to notice the needle as it was forcefully jabbed into her thigh. It was slow acting and she angrily brushed off the doctor responsible, knocking him into another two nurses unintentionally. She roared once and then the drugs took effect.

Knees buckling beneath her, Water fell to all fours, holding herself up with her shivering, shaking arms. Hearing faded in and out, turning into the incomprehensible, messy and ugly language of the humans. Her awareness faded, turning her blind as her super-senses were rendered useless by the quick-acting drugs. Fighting her fluttering eyelids, she was found she was only able to defy them until they fell heavily shut with a deadening and audible snap; leaving her last view that night as Aimee, lying comatose in a hospital bed, experiencing unimaginable pain somewhere else entirely where no one could help her.


	8. La Fuite

_A/N: Sorry for the late update, guys. It happens. Hopefully, the quality of this makes up for it. _

_And thanks to Japanese-rocker-girl for your contributions, very handy!_

_Anyways: enjoy!_

Aimée

Chapter Seven

La fuite

Tid was semi-conscious when the aptly named Rescue Team arrived. Upon first hearing their name, she had been sceptical as to how much rescuing they actually did, particularly given Ice, who seemed incapable of doing much else besides talk. However, after the following events, she had been converted, believing solemnly that they were the best rescue team to have ever rescued. Her deep brown eyes were dilated at shocking speeds as her heavy eyelids fell into a regular pattern of rising and falling.

Curled up in a ball, as though clutching her own body were the only thing keeping her clutching onto life itself, Tid whimpered. Her pathetic cries echoed around the cave with the delicacy and beauty of a butterfree dancing in a forest bathed in warm, golden, summer light. The dank cave, however, was as far from a forest bathed in summer light as one could get. Above, deadly daggers hung precariously, dripping freezing cold droplets of water onto those unfortunate enough to be standing below. A blanket of ice seemed to sit over them, bathing them in an oppressive lack of heat so intense that every breath unleashed a flurry of whispery white gas.

"Are you done yet?" snapped the houndoom, pacing the small confined area of the cave. His voice was immediately recognisable as the one that had been panting frantically and with an audible level of frustration for the past hour. His thick heavy body meant that with every pound of his paws against the damp, wet floor, there was a deafening thud followed by a faint sizzling as the heat from his body evaporated the tiny puddle he had trodden in, "We're running out of time!"

"I'm working as fast as I can!" retorted the ninetales, angered by his colleague's impatience, "This is delicate, painstaking work and it would go a lot faster if you would stop making noise!"

Though barely registering their words or movements, Tid could sense that they were becoming panicked, concerned. The inflections in their voices indicated to Tid, through her semi-conscious daze, that they thought something was eventually going to stop them. At this thought, muddled and confused as it was, a tiny flicker of furiously burning hope leapt into life at the bottom of her heart, warming her instantly against the piercing cold as it hung over her like death itself.

Suddenly, there was sharp movement and words, but, to Tid, the words were carried away by a howling wind that swept without warning throughout the tunnel-cave. Fighting against her eyelids until they remained open, Tid tried to drag her weak body into a sitting position, so she could see what intruder had caused alarm amongst the pack. In the distance, silhouetted against the light, a black shadow with two burning red eyes of hellish fury stood. Hatred unimaginable erupted within the creature's eyes and it was this tangible anger that woke Tid immediately from her barely-conscious daze, snapping her into a fully conscious state in seconds.

The wind, which tore through her thick brown fur as though it were little more than a flimsy strand of paper hovering beside a bin, died down slowly, whistling with a declining note until a suppressing silence surrounded them. No one dared speak, all staring in awe at the terrifying creature of hell that stood at the castle gates. Taking a single step forward, the red-eyed monster inspired such fear that all but the ninetales and houndoom backed several metres further away. Circles of burning golden light sat upon the creature's midnight black body, bathing the walls in an eerie, uncanny shade of yellow light.

"Leave."

Tid would have sworn, had it not been for her better rationality, that the beast had spoken without its mouth moving. The two eyes, the two burning, glaring ferocious eyes, tore into the skin of those before them as though it were searing hot acid, ripping flesh from bone. Naturally, all but the houndoom and ninetales fled for their lives, escaping the other side of the tunnel at speeds that were simply astonishing. Another step forward and Tid could have sworn she saw a sadistic smirk pull at the corners of the creature's hideous mouth. The houndoom and ninetales, however, remained steadfast, even moving between Tid and the creature as though to protect her.

"Again. Leave. Now."

Each word bounced around the confined space several times before the following word sounded. The monosyllabic imperatives shook Tid to the core, increasing her heart rate by many, many noughts. Another step and the houndoom and ninetales had stood up, their legs shaking from the fight between their instinct to flee and their pride. As the two devilish red eyes approached once more, the ninetales fled, uttering no sound beyond that that his fleeing movements produced.

A whoosh as the terrified nine-tailed fox turned where it stood, its nine tails flinging out against the unmoving air. An almost inaudible whimper as the fox's throat released a sound of terror. Rapid, quiet pats as the ninetales feet carried it off into the distance, away from the terrible, terrible fate that awaited it should it remain in the cave. The houndoom, spooked by his friend's abandonment, looked around briefly, before realising he would ever look back to the creature of horror again. A bright flash and the houndoom was unconscious, comatose even. And then. Then it was just the Devil and Tid. A tiny little eevee against the Devil himself.

"Tid," whispered the beast as it approached, its red eyes no longer glistening with tangible hatred and fury and animosity so powerful it struck at a primal fear on a primal level, "Tid, it's okay, it's me. It's Ombre."

And looking up, Tid found her deep brown eyes gazing with watery salty tears into the familiar, almost heavenly red eyes that were her salvation. Leaping up without a second's thought, Tid embraced the umbreon that stood before her. Clasping her paws around his thick, black neck, she never wanted to let go. Tears erupted from her eyes as a heart-wrenching expression of emotions were shown by the tiny, innocent little eevee. Ombre, realising the distress, shushed and whispered reassuring words of kindness and affection, waiting for Tid to recover.

**Some time later…**

"Tid, Tid," asked Ice, waking the eevee from her reverie, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," replied Tid, whose eyes were distant and occupied, "Fine."

Ice, unconvinced, walked away. He walked over to where the rest of the team stood, watching Tid with a concern so tangible that she should have been able to smell it. They watched from the foyer of the team's base. Watched as she sat beneath the old tree, staring out at nothing, her eyes vacant, her tail motionless and her face expressionless.

She was no longer in shock, Doctor Slomo had assured them, at least not in the physically medical sense. He had warned them that perhaps she would suffer from some post-traumatic stress, that perhaps she would never be the same again. They'd barely known her two days and already, she had been broken like an unwanted toy at Christmas.

"Is he on his way?" asked the tiny teddiursa.

"Yes he is." responded the arriving alakazam.

Ombre rolled his eyes and refused to remove himself from his lounging position on the floor. Ice, Luft and Moon, however, were entranced and staring up at the just-teleported-in alakazam with visibly glistening eyes of awe. Ombre and alakazam, whose alias was 'the Psychic', used to work together many eons ago and it was for this, and the Psychic's unparalleled psychic abilities, that he had contacted him. The Psychic approached Ombre, who stood up once the alakazam was at his side.

"Well?" asked the Psychic.

"She's there," replied Ombre, "See the problem?"

The Psychic looked down, his eyes contorted by an unrecognisable emotion as he kneaded his forehead with his hands. Sighing, the Psychic looked at Ombre, meeting the two red eyes with glistening purple eyes of frank honesty. Ombre frowned, he didn't like it when the Psychic was honest; it was almost always a bad thing. Especially and particularly when he did the rubbing forehead, sighing thing as well. Ombre's ears flattened against his neck, as though threatening the very consideration of passing on bad news.

"Severe mental trauma," stated the Psychic almost coldly, "Her memories are seeping back and they're putting immense stress on her psyche. She'll keep fading out, becoming vacant, staring into space, until either all the memories are returned or they are all destroyed."

"No happy middle ground?" asked Ice hopefully.

"No," replied the Psychic, "No happy middle ground."

Misery settling in on them, the group watched as Tid visibly flinched before resting her head on her paws and staring once more into the distance, as though it contained within it something so utterly enthralling that she was physically unable to drag her eyes away from it.

**Meanwhile…**

"Professor Oak!" cried out the desperate doctor as he ran towards the all-encompassing knowledge of the professor, "Professor, thank Arceus you're here!"

"I think that's quite unnecessary," replied Oak, frowning with puzzlement as the doctor grabbed his wrinkled hand and pulled him towards the very place he intended to visit of his own free will. Snatching his hand away, Oak stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the young doctor, demanding to be explained to, "Tell me what is going on!"

"It's Aimee's swampert, Water," rattled the doctor, barely comprehensible as the words flowed from his mouth like a fountain of clear water, "She went hysterical a few minutes ago, we had to give her a sedative and now we can't get in the room because Aimee's dragonite attacks us!"

Oak's eyebrows immediately shot upwards into is receding grey hairline. On all of the occasions he'd met Aimee and her pokémon, they had been astoundingly well-behaved. Then again, he reasoned, these were not normal circumstances. The pokémon must have thought they'd attacked Water or something, it was certainly out of character for them. Needing no further persuasion, Oak followed the doctor at a pace of which his small herd of ponyta would have been proud.

Once he had arrived at the correct door, he noted a small, terrified cluster of doctors and nurses standing outside the white door. They were standing a metre away from its frame, as though terrified that something as simple as touching the door would be enough to induce the wrath of a well-trained and clever dragonite. Sitting in the distance on a white hospital couch were Aimee's family, all clutching half-drunk coffees and teas, packets of crisps and sandwiches and chocolate strewn out across the table.

Frowning, Oak decided that enough was enough. The pokémon were terrified, the family was terrified and the staff were terrified and, without knowing it, each were playing off the fear of the other, trapped in a vicious circle in which no one would do anything for fear of invoking the wrath of the other. Sighing, Oak grabbed the handle, pushed on it and swung the door open, finding that there were no angry pokémon waiting to attack him. Instead, finding the small group of four clustered around Aimee's bed, watching with eyes that seemed to be glazed over with a salty, watery sheen of light.

Acknowledging the entrance, the pokémon immediately turned around, all except Water, who was still unconscious from the effects of the sedatives. Douglas sat on Aimee's chest, staring at her sleeping face with terrifying intensity. Flash stood in the corner, arms crossed, pretending not to care even as his tail flickered with sparks of electricity, unconsciously indicating his distress. Ray, whose face was constantly bombarded by an ever-changing myriad of emotions, leapt to her feet and stormed over to Oak, visually expressing anger, frustration, joy, relief and fury within the space of two metres.

Terrified, the staff stumbled backwards, watching in awe-struck surprise as Oak held his ground, opening out his arms as the hysterical, hormonal mess of a dragonite approached him. By the time Ray had reached Oak, she had collapsed to her knees and unleashed a torrent of tears from her eyes. Kneeling down, Oak embraced the despairing dragonite, whispering words of assurance and ushering the pokémon back into the room before informing the staff and family that it was perfectly safe to return. Though slow to accept Oak's reassurance, the staff had little choice but to pause and wonder in amazement at Oak's ability to understand these creatures.

Within the room, Water's face began to twitch itself into consciousness.


End file.
